We live in a world where success is measured by how many people attend a particular church, by the number of programs it mounts and by how much money is flowing through the bank accounts.
So I wondered, one day, how many people I could get to come to my church. And it occurred to me that among those I could never count on would be:
Those who aren't saved -- they wouldn't be interested
Those who prefer feel-good sermonizing -- they wouldn't want to be challenged
Those who want to be entertained -- they would be bored
Those who expect to be healed -- they would be disappointed
Those who want to be wealthy -- see "Those who expect to be healed"
Those who are offended by The Gospel -- they wouldn't last long
Those living in sin -- this would be too convicting
Those engaged in an active homosexual lifestyle -- no cover here
Those seeking to climb the social ladder -- we don't even have a footstool
Those who want to "come as you are" -- we think worship is special
Those who see religion as subjective -- they wouldn't like objective, propositional truths
There's more, but you get the point. Efforts to market Christianity with whatever it is folks are selling these days in order to fill up the pews is big business. And it works! What it doesn't do is glorify God.
You see "Church" is the spiritual organism Jesus came to build. It's His Church and it consists only of truly born again believers. Others attend, and that's good. But they do not constitute The Church. When all you're doing is working to get more of these folks into your building, you're the one building the Church -- not Jesus.
And the effort, while it looks good to the watching world, is not at all what God calls The Church. Give them secular music forms, liturgical dancing, sight-and-sound presentations, weak preaching -- or just homilies and biblical vignettes, coffee shops, a promise of good health and great wealth (if you sow financial seeds into MY ministry), and a non-judgmental attitude. You will soon have to build a bigger barn.
Just don't call it "Church." The Bible doesn't.
1 comment:
Right Pastor, the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth John 4:23,24
After leaving the charismatic confusion that reflected a not so holy(come as you are) mentality, a worldly appeal to the flesh, ie tongue babble prayers, rock worship music, dancing in the isles, slain in the spirit, laying on of hands, in comparison to being fed the meat of the Word at Bible Baptist, I can see there was no need for all of those external forms of supposed worship.
A child of God just wants the truth, blessed assurance which only the scriptures can give us, and His will in our lives to be holy and usable by him through Jesus. Romans 12:1,2
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